National Study Of Houston Teens Finds 26% Text Every Time They Drive

[marmar]

July 29, 2013
by: Ed Mayberry


(KUHF) A new study finds that 27 percent of Houston teenagers say they read a text or email every time they drive. About one in five Houston teens have extended conversations via text message while driving.

It's a national survey from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and Toyota that finds that cell phone use by teen drivers — and their parents — is pervasive.

Sixty-seven percent of Houston teens report using a cell phone while driving, and 83 percent of parents do the same.

More than one in ten Houston teens — 12 percent — say they update or check Facebook or Twitter while driving. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1374854836-National-Study-Of-Houston-Teens-Finds-26-Text-Every-Time-They-Drive.html

[Orrex]

1. It might be more illuminating to ask how many drive while texting.

[Javaman]

2. while driving home from work two days ago...

some jack ass was weaving all over the place in moderate traffic. I witnessed several close calls. As I pulled up along side, I noticed this colossal jackass was texting.

So I faded back a bit and blew my horn.

the asshole woke up, weaved all over the place then straighted out.

gotta love my cement head gov rick asshole perry for not signing into law the ban on texting and driving because it would limit a persons freedoms.

fyi: the texting and driving thing I witnessed is pretty much a daily occurrence on my drive home. OCD texters.

[pipi_k]

30. One of

my vehicles has a little dashcam thing that records on a constant basis when the car is running.

Texting while driving is illegal here in Mass, too, so you can bet that anybody texting in the car in front of me is going to be filmed in the act and their plate number and erratic driving will be recorded and sent to the State Police.

Who may, or may not, do anything about it...hopefully they would, but you never know.

[surrealAmerican]

3. How is this a "national" study if it only covers one city?

... not that I doubt the figure might be similar in other cities and towns ...

[xocet]

4. A mere two links away lies the answer....

July 24, 2013

More Than A Quarter of Houston Teens Read a Text or Email Every Time They Drive, According to Study by University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and Toyota
Teens in Houston Regularly Drive with Multiple Teen Passengers and No Adults, Despite Significant Risks

TORRANCE, Calif., July 24, 2013 – Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS), today announced Houston findings from a major, national study of teen drivers (ages 16 to 18) and parents of teen drivers conducted jointly with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).

...

The Houston findings of the UMTRI/Toyota Study are based on a telephone survey of 300 teen drivers and 402 parents of teen drivers in the Houston area. Additionally, the study includes local surveys in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Long Island, N.Y.

The Study, sponsored by CSRC, was designed to shed new light on frequently discussed driving risks and to identify effective recommendations to help keep teens safe and help parents serve as more effective driving role models. The Study also looked at a range of risk factors that receive less public attention but pose great risks on the road as well as the role parents and peers play in encouraging distracted driving behaviors.

http://pressroom.toyota.com/releases/houston+teens+read+text+email+drive+study+umtri+toyota.htm

[Lee-Lee]

9. On a side note

I hate it when any study claims to be representative of the nation as a whole, but only is done in major metropolitan areas.

Not everybody lives in major urban areas, and studies that only look there are not representative of the nation as a whole.

Not saying that it would change the results here, I doubt it, but it is still flawed and lazy methodology.

[NewThinkingChance40]

22. It seems to just show the Houston Findings

All throughout they specify it is the "Houston findings" from a "national study".

What I don't get is why are they releasing the findings from only Houston if it was a national study. Something smells fishy here...

[The Straight Story]

5. Ban cell phones since they are the cause of the problem. If they didn't exist

this would not be an issue.

And don't give me crap about how so many others can own cell phones and be responsible with them, if a few use them this way then they all possibly could.

The only people who need cell phones are the police and government officials, what did we do back in 1776? You don't even have a right to own a phone (or anything else not mentioned by name I hear in the constitution or bill of rights).

There, problem solved. Now off to find stories to post all day about killed by cell phones....

[customerserviceguy]

8. I have Bluetooth in my car

And I can keep both hands completely on the wheel when making or answering a call. You can't do that with texting.

Of course, there are two really obnoxious behaviors I see with hand-held cell phone users (and they're rampant over here) first is having to look at the damned thing, and second is using the other hand to "talk" with. What the hell are they looking at, and why do they think someone else can see their silly-ass hand gestures?

[Lizzie Poppet]

14. I see what you did there.

I wonder if Robb sees, too?

[CrispyQ]

6. I sent this to all my friends who have teen drivers.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Does anyone think they're going to quit

when they become parents with those obnoxious "Baby on Board" signs on the backs of their SUV's?

We need to ban texting, period. Wipe it out at the telco level. It's just another addiction that many, if not most, people simply cannot control. We did just fine without it twenty years ago.

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. I have come to like being able to text.

But I don't do it very often. Sometimes its just a lot more convenient to send a text to my customers if I don't really need to talk to them but I need to send some information.

I can't imagine texting while I'm driving. Way too dangerous. I turn my cell phone to silent while I'm in the car. Then I can call people back when I get some place safe.

I drive a lot of miles every day and it really takes total concentration on the road and other drivers in order to be safe out there.

[customerserviceguy]

12. There's nothing you can do with texting

that you can't do with a phone conversation.

Besides, all we're waiting for is the body count to pile up, just like those Asian wars that seemed like such a good idea when they were started. One thing that would accellerate the process is for the child of a famous and/or powerful person to die from a texter. Can you imagine what President Hillary Clinton would do if some asshat plowed into a pregnant Chelsea, killing both the daughter and the grandchild? Not wishing that on anybody, but it's only a matter of time.

You'll get used to doing without it. May as well get started now.

[Mariana]

17. How many people have been killed

by drunk drivers since the 21st Amendment took effect? How many hundreds of thousands? It's still going on today, thousands of people killed every year. Yet, I don't see too many people out there advocating that we bring back Prohibition.

Similarly, texting itself is not going to be banned, even if some people get killed by texting drivers.

[customerserviceguy]

18. Alcoholic beverages

have a far greater history than texting. It's impossible to get rid of alcoholic beverages because fermentation is one of the first chemical reactions known to humankind.

Texting, on the other hand, can be eliminated simply by forbidding the telcos from supplying it. You can also block the servers of any independent operation that offers it, and besides, with most phones being not rooted, the vast majority of people would not be able to override that.

Why can't you see that something totally unnecessary is maiming and killing innocents because addicts cannot give it up?

[Mariana]

25. Oh, I can see that something totally unnecessary

is killing and maiming innocents, etc. etc. but I don't believe texting itself is ever going to be banned because of it. I also understand that texting could be done away with rather easily. I just don't think it will be.

[customerserviceguy]

26. Yes, alcohol is indeed totally unnecessary

but it goes back to the dawn of human history, and thus is impossible to eradicate.

As for whether it will be, it's just a matter of the body count. Having a celebrity suffer a tragedy because of a death by texting would really help the cause of getting rid of it. Remember those Asian wars that sounded oh-so-good when they were entered into, that turned sour as soon as the body bags came home.

[KittyWampus]

20. I am just curious… why not email customers? Why the need to text over email?

I do not text and am wondering.

I totally get not wanting to talk via telephone. But it's just as easy to send an email using a normal keyboard.

Why text?

[leftyladyfrommo]

29. I don't have a computer at home. I use the library computer.

And my cell phone is a little fliptop.

But being able to text just a short message is very helpful to me. I am a pet sitter. I text people to just let them know I've been to the house and everything is OK there. Or they text me to let me know they have made it home safely.

[KittyWampus]

31. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[burnodo]

21. No

and I think among the gen pop that number is probably higher

[One_Life_To_Give]

11. I guess "Drive like Hell, you'll get there"

isn't a teen past time anymore?

I suppose the bright side is the trees won't be hit as hard. But many more fenders will be creased.

[jmowreader]

13. Cell phones have GPS sensors in them, and GPS can detect motion...

There should be a way to design a phone so you can't use the texting function while the phone is moving.

[KamaAina]

16. But how would it distinguish the driver from a passenger?

Or a passenger on a bus or train?

[jmowreader]

19. It wouldn't be able to

We're looking at one of four alternatives here.

First is to let things go on as they are. That ain't workin', folks. WAY too many people are getting killed by texting drivers to allow this.

Second is to do what I said - eliminate the ability of a phone to text if it's moving faster than you can walk. This would also eliminate passengers' ability to text, but what can you do?

Third is to get rid of texting, which would be universally rejected.

And fourth is to figure out some way to design phones so they have to be held in a way that makes it impossible to drive while you're doing it before you could text. I'm thinkin' that if you made them make the phones large enough a normal hand can't reach both the bottom and top edges of the phone at the same time (an iPhone or a larger Android is already this big), and put a couple of contact plates on the top edge that you have to touch at the same time to get the texting to come on, you'd have it.

[KamaAina]

24. Chip embedded in the steering wheel?

Phone disabled if it's within, say, two feet of the chip?

[jmowreader]

28. That would still keep front-seat passengers from texting, and wouldn't cover older cars

[pipi_k]

32. Wouldn't cover older cars...

that's true, but I think it would at least be a good place to start.

Plus...I don't know about anybody else, but when I'm in the front passenger seat, I'm more than two feet away from the steering wheel. And if I want to add another two feet to that, all I have to do is turn to my right a bit.

Now I'm +/- four feet away...

[kentuck]

15. It's almost like...

...today's teens have a certain insecurity where they have to be talking to their friends at all times. They are fearful of losing contact.

[KittyWampus]

23. It is addictive behavior. So after a certain point, it becomes very difficult to stop.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/why-were-all-addicted-texts-twitter-and-google

[BlueJazz]

27. If it were up to me, texting while driving a vehicle (in motion) would be a penalty involving...

..picking up trash for 6 hours on your day off.

[pipi_k]

33. While being forced

to listen to this song over and over, the whole time...

that'll teach the little bastards!!!

[BlueJazz]

34. SWEET JESUS CHRIST !! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ????

Damn...I was laughing my ass completely off for the whole song.

I was cursed with perfect pitch but I think now that's shot.

LOL...Geez...In-cred-a-ble.